These symphonies celebrate life

MAHLER 101

Feb. 22, 2013

Mark Gibson, music director and conductor of the CCM Philharmonia Orchestra, will lead a Mahler marathon. / The Enquirer/Joe Simon

ADVERTISEMENT

Many people are familiar with Beethoven and Mozart symphonies but are intimidated when it comes to a Mahler composition. Nevertheless, music by the late-romantic composer Mahler has become a fixture in concerts, recordings and broadcasts.

A Mahler symphony can last up to 100 minutes. How do you take it all in?

It’s best to just listen, says Mark Gibson, head of orchestral studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

“Much has been written about Mahler’s symphonies – even by Mahler – and about his world view,” Gibson says. “But Mahler that can be explained is not the real Mahler. Mahler can only be lived and experienced and heard live.”

Gibson will conduct a “Mahler Marathon” of Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 and selections from “Des knaben Wunderhorn” (The Youth’s Magic Horn) in two performances on Saturday in Corbett Auditorium. The rare event will also be a marathon for the conductor, who will be leading more than three hours of music in the back-to-back concerts.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was a Bohemian-born Austrian composer who capped the romantic era with vast symphonies calling for massive forces. Yet his music is also deeply personal, and his symphonies project interior emotion – whether intense sorrow or joy.

Mahler drew from the sounds he heard from everyday Austrian life, from the beauty in nature to funeral marches and village bands. The music can be sinister and brutal, or radiantly beautiful. The composer’s palette includes sleigh bells, offstage posthorns, celestial children’s voices, heaven-storming brass and charming folk songs.

“I find it thrilling music. It talks about the aspirations of humankind, particularly these two pieces,” Gibson says.

When Mahler sat down to write his Symphony No. 3, he envisioned a work of such magnitude that it would “mirror the whole world.” Initially, he planned his Third and the Fourth as one big symphony, and later separated them.

Mahler’s original idea of one grandiose symphony inspired Gibson to perform them together.

“They describe two sides of life – ‘The Earthly Life’ (‘Das irdische Leben’) in the Third Symphony, and ‘The Heavenly Life’ (‘Das himmlische Leben’) in the Fourth. So, the basic concept is a stairway to heaven, really.”

The Third Symphony, which will feature 110 players in the Philharmonia Orchestra, is the longest symphony (100 minutes) in the repertoire and is “always considered an event,” Gibson says.

The Fourth doesn’t call for such vast forces but “has a kind of mystical fantasy quality. I relate it very much to the paintings of Marc Chagall.”

Mahler’s “Des knaben Wunderhorn,” to be performed in the first program with Symphony No. 4, is a setting of poems from a collection of German folk poetry. The Wunderhorn poems fascinated Mahler. Symphony No. 3 includes the song “Es sungen drei Engel” (‘Three Angels Sang’), a charming piece for children’s voices, women’s chorus and alto solo. “Das himmlische Leben,” for soprano solo, is the finale of the Fourth.

For the listener, there is also the spectacle of 220 performers onstage in Symphony No. 3.

“The Third Symphony is just sonically overwhelming – the sheer size of the orchestra, the size of the symphony, its great tunes, its great structure, and its great spectacle,” Gibson says. “There’s a chorus onstage, a chorus in the balcony, soloists, bells, offstage trumpet – it has a visual appeal for audiences.”